How did Qu Opera come about?

Qu Opera was developed on the basis of Henan Opera, the initial form was sung by performers on stilts, and then gradually developed into Gao Taiqu.

Qu Opera was developed on the basis of Henan Opera, the initial form was sung by performers on stilts, and then gradually developed into Gao Tai Qu. Drums are a kind of rap art in the form of a combination of songs, and when they sing, three or five people take the sandalwood boards and hit the knuckles, contrary to the previous three-stringed accompaniment, and they need to be helped together at the help of the voice. Each piece of music is sung in a certain order. Around the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Civil War, there was a combination of drums and stilts, known as the "stilt song". When it first appeared, neither in disguise, nor when the line is not divided, just by a number of people on stilts to sing the storyline of the tune, accompanied by three strings and other musical instruments, walking the streets and neighborhoods. Development to around 1920, there is a simple masquerade and rough division of labor stilt song, most of the performance of the drums in most of the story of the characters in the folklore script, such as "Xiao Guxian", "playing soap", "small fish" and so on. "Stilt song" to remove the stilt crutch and on the theater stage, it is the evolution of general folk songs and dances for the formal "high stage song" this form of opera landmark event, the formation of opera development of a qualitative leap.

As early as in the 15th year of the Republic of China (1926) on the seventh day of the fourth lunar month, by the Linru County, Henan Province, Zheng Tiefeng village Zhu Wanming and Dazhang village Guan Yunlong, led by the drama society "with the music society" (by the stilt song "playmates," Zhu Wanming, Ma Qingbo, Chen Shuqi, Li Fusheng, Zheng Jun, etc.) a line of *** 16 people went to Henan Dengfeng County, Yingyang Township, Sanli Liwa Village performance, because it rained, many days can not be on stilts performance, Li Zubai Liwa Village (Baozheng, coaxed the theater) proposed to remove the stilts standing on the stage singing songs. By watching the performance of the farmers will be transported Zhuang stilts oxcart built into a high platform, and remove the stilts stilts abductors climbed to the stage to sing, sang "Xu Scholar sacrifice tower", "Yang Bajie haunted the hotel" plays. This makes the stilt song on the stage song. Two months later, the lunar calendar June 13, Liwa Village this day year after year for the Dragon King Temple singing temple theater, in front of the temple gate base a 0.5 meters high a small platform, the top hit the shed, the back hung a large piece of red cloth, called shade cloth, which is like a stage, by Yichuan Geng Gengchen, Kong Haidong, Liu Jinshui ...... Dengfeng's Wang Tianshui, Fan Suilin, Li圪. Ta ...... and other twenty people on the stage sang opera, imitating the local Yue tune and by the tune (Henan Bangkok) and added a small brass. They sang "Ding Lang recognizes his father", "Tian He Ji", "Liu Quan enters the melon", "Wu Song kills his sister-in-law" and "Shu Guan Hui". "The Bookstore Meeting" and so on. The new way of performing received surprisingly good results. From then on, the stage tune went on stage tune, called Henan tune, and later called Henan opera. Henan opera was officially born. After the temple play, the news spread far and wide, to invite them to sing for their blessing constantly, they recruited famous performers from all over the world and the village actors to go out to perform, and wrote on the red cloth "Wake up the people troupe" four big words. This is the earliest opera troupe in China. In 1927, it began to perform abroad to earn a living. Soon it influenced the nearby counties and townships, and there were many singing organizations. This form of performing on stage without stilts became more common in the late 1920s. Zhu Wanming was also affected, and in 1928, after watching the performance of civilized opera (popular drama) in Luoyang, they were quite inspired and had a change of mindset, so they went to the city with their "playmates" and performed "Quitting Big Tobacco" in a kangyuan (the original site of the "Victory Stage") in the old set of Luoyang. From the 1930s, the stage operas gradually learned the performance formula from the brother operas, and the accompanying instruments of the operas gradually increased, and gradually developed into a sound "cultural and military field", thus forming a complete local opera and developing in the direction of formalization. The development of Qu Opera was in the direction of formalization. Qu Opera absorbed the percussion of Yu Opera, Peking Opera and other opera styles, and enriched the orchestral music according to the needs of singing accompaniment, and the repertoire was also gradually changed from family life drama to historical drama (robed drama), and from small and medium-sized drama to large drama, and the various trades and professions were also gradually improved.

But in the early 30's, the general opera troupe still stayed in the amateur nature: busy farming, leisure from the art, a troupe of only ten people. They did not pay for their performances, but only asked for food. If you receive gifts of money and goods, the whole class will be distributed equally. At that time, in Runan, Zhoukou, Xinyang, Nanyang and other places, have appeared high Taiwan class.